Paper short abstract:

The presentation will analyze the role of Japanese intellectuals in the debate regarding the Meiji Centennial (1968) with the aim of contextualizing the place of the debate in the cultural landscape of Japan in the 1960s and, more generally, in the country's postwar intellectual history.

Paper long abstract:

The Meiji Centennial (1968) was a crucial stage in the postwar process of constructing and disseminating memory in the Japanese society. The involvement of the population, the wide range of initiatives put in place to commemorate the anniversary, the attention given by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to the arrangement for the celebrations indicate how high the political stakes in the event was. The Jubilee was conceived as an opportunity to mark the country's impressive economic growth and its re-integration into the international community: Japan's achievements were artfully stressed, while unresolved issues and persistent sources of domestic conflict were left in the background.

Japanese intellectuals approached the anniversary in different ways. Some of them were chosen as members of the Preparatory Committee established by the government in 1966. Some others, such as the sinologist and cultural critic Takeuchi Yoshimi (1910-1977) and the writer Kuwabara Takeo (1904-1988), acted as leading supporters of a re-evaluation of the Meiji Restoration, proposing as early as in the late 1950s a debate on the opportunity to commemorate the anniversary. Finally, most of the historians, especially those affiliated with the "sengo rekishigaku" school, fiercely opposed the Meiji Centennial. From their point of view, the government-sponsored initiatives aimed at institutionalizing a historical narrative oblivious of the militaristic past, prone to glorify the Emperor and instrumental for legitimating the ruling party's vision of Japan's role in Asia and in the world.

The proposed presentation will analyze the role of Japanese intellectuals in the debate regarding the Meiji Centennial. Articles and public declarations appeared on academic journals and monthly magazines will be surveyed in order to investigate the arguments advanced by the supporters and critics of the celebrations and examine their relation with the "Shōwa history debate" (Shōwashi ronsō) and the "Modernization theory". The aim is to contextualize the place of the Meiji Centennial debate in the cultural landscape of Japan in the 1960s and, more generally, in the country's postwar intellectual history.